Just Thursday
by strayphoenix
Summary: Thursday at the Xavier Institute just wouldn't be Thursday without the Brotherhood visiting, new students demolishing, Wolverine raging, codenames changing, Danger Room dangering and of course, the end of the world as new student Betsy Braddock finds out


_**Just Thursday**_

This story takes place about two years after the end of the series so here's a little helper on ages:

Remy, Piotr, Forge-23  
Sage-22  
Scott, Jean, Lance, Emma, Betsy-21  
Rogue-20  
Kurt, Tabitha-19  
Kitty, Alex, X23-18  
New Mutants- less than18

**

* * *

**

Betsy Braddock eyed the mansion before her with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. The trepidation was due mostly in part because she was about to walk into a place solely inhabited by mutants when she'd never come in contact with one before in her life. She herself hadn't known she was a mutant until three weeks prior and it hadn't been an easy decision to travel all the way to New York to see this 'Mutant Academy' that supposedly trained superheroes.

But that was the exciting part. She'd seem some of the X-Men on TV even all the way in Britain and had been wondering since what it would be like to be an X-Man. How did they train? What did they do when they didn't train? Things of the sort.

She was drawn from her musings by the sound of the taxi driving away and looked to see a bald man in a wheelchair smiling at her warmly.

"Welcome to America, Betsy. And welcome to the Xavier Institute"

Betsy returned his smile and placed her hand in his outstretched one and shook it. "Thank you, Professor Xavier. Your Institute is really—"

She stopped speaking and colored suddenly when she realized that she had been reading his mind by accident. She began to form an apology but he interrupted her.

"Don't worry about it. Here, we can teach you how to control your telepathy and it honestly saves us the introduction" he smiled. "Will you please follow me into my office? I'd like to get some paperwork taken care of before we begin with your tour of the mansion. You do understand that we will have to test your abilities as well as your stamina and health before we can formally extend our invitation?" he added. Betsy nodded.

"Very well," he smiled. "This way Miss Braddock."

**

* * *

**

Betsy stepped confidently into the kitchen after making her arrangements with the Professor. She was met with the sight of several teenagers dining on a wide vary of lunch items ranging from sandwiches to a full steak sitting on a plate with an unoccupied chair. One of the teens, a cheery looking brunette in a ponytail, smiled as she approached Betsy.

"Hi! My name's Kitty! You're, like, that new student the Professor said was coming today!"

"Yeah" Betsy responded. "Name's Betsy Braddock. And it's a _possible _new student"

Suddenly, Betsy found herself coughing as the air was filled with smoke that smelled awful.

"Who's a possible new student?" came a voice seemingly from the smoke.

"Kurt! No teleporting right after school! No one's functioning enough to deal with your heart attacks!" Kitty shouted.

When the smoke cleared, Betsy found herself looking at what appeared to be a blue furry elf hanging from the kitchen light from his tail. He grinned at her wide eyed look.

"Hi! My name's Kurt! Velcome to Xavier's!"

Betsy blinked a few times. Despite the demonic exterior, he seemed to be friendly enough. "Um, hello. I'm Betsy"

"Sorry about ze teleportation" he apologized as he flipped right side up and landed on his feet. "Ze students are already used to me"

"Heh, no problem" Betsy replied for lack of anything better to say. "Um, do you always look like that?"

"Hard to belive, huh?" he asked as he suavely ran his three fingers through his hair and tossed his head. Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, he's a heartthrob," Kitty joked with a giggle. She turned back to Betsy, "Let's get you something to eat then we can—"

Kitty was interrupted by high pitched shrieking. All heads whipped around to the open kitchen door to see a young blonde haired boy tearing down the stairs in a Hawaiian shirt at top speed.

"_**GANGWAY! GANGWAY!"**_

Besty watched in still silence with the rest of the students as the boy tore through the foyer and suddenly realized why he was going so fast.

"_**COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PUNK!"**_

Following the blonde (and swiftly catching up) was a much older man who seemed to have three knives sticking out of each of his hands. Bulky as he was, he was running extremely fast. And as fast as both boys were, the dark haired girl chasing the pair was even faster.

"_**LOGAN! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM! LOGAN!"**_

It dawned on Betsy that the girl might be the man's daughter judging by the fact that she had two knives sticking out of each hand.

Suddenly, it seemed the whole kitchen burst to life and everyone was running out the kitchen door to see what was going to happen. Betsy, caught up in the crowd of people, had no choice but to follow as she lost sight of Kitty and Kurt.

Outside the kitchen, the boy was cowering in a corner of the foyer as the girl stood protectively between him and the larger furious man. She was attempting to reason with him.

"Logan, calm down! It was my idea and Alex had nothing to do with it!" she shouted at him.

"I bet he had something to do with it!" he shouted back in response, "HE WAS THE ONE ON TOP OF YOU!"

"I am old enough to decide who I want to make out with!" she responded, not even wincing at the man's shouting. "You have no legal authority over me even if I wasn't!"

The man looked ready to rip his claws into the girl and she looked about ready to defend herself and possibly rip her claws into him when the Professor finally made his way to the scene.

"Logan, Laura, I would appreciate it if you would not shed each other's blood on my antique carpet," he chided verbally while sending them a message telepathically.

The man, Logan, glared first at the Professor and then back at the girl, Laura, before walking in the direction of a corridor and stalking out of sight. Laura sent a fleeting look at the blonde haired Alex before turning in the opposite direction and heading back up the stairs. As soon as the two split, the crowd of students dispersed and either headed back to the kitchen or upstairs to their rooms.

Betsy watched as one of the mutants, a brunette wearing red sunglasses, walked over to Alex and hoisted him up from the floor by his upper arm.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked worriedly.

"Depends" he responded, still breathing irregularly. The seemingly older brunette broke into a grin.

"Hey, if it's any consolation, it took Jean twice as long to realize that Logan was serious about killing me. I was practically halfway to California before she intervened"

"What is it with our luck and girls, bro" he sighed but with a smile this time at the boy who Betsy now saw was obviously his brother.

Betsy felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Kitty.

"Don't worry about that, Betsy. Logan won't make another attempt at Alex probably until after dinner. Let's get some like, lunch and then we can like, head down to the Danger Room"

Betsy's natural adventurer kicked in. "Danger Room?"

**

* * *

**

"Give me your best shot, Swamp Rat"

Betsy observed the quick brunette girl with stripes through her hair dodge a barrage of what appeared to be playing cards just as she entered the control room of what Kitty called the Danger Room. They were not alone as another dark skinned girl and the gruff man known as Logan were watching the fight as well, the latter wearing a cowboy hat. Under the controls was also a young teenage boy.

She breathed in astonishment as she noticed this was not the only battle raging as several other uniformed teens were fighting partners beneath her while fire spurted out from the walls and claws attempted to grab the fighters.

"Hey Amara! I've been looking for you!" Kitty said cheerily as the girl turned around. "Have you, like, seen my hairdryer?"

Amara, the only other girl in the hanger, looked at Kitty in surprise. "You mean the hot pink one? I left it in your room this morning before school"

"Really? Shoot! I haven't been able to find it!" Kitty complained. He bent over and scowled at the boy under the controls, "You didn't take it, did you Bobby?"

"Why does everybody automatically assume me?" he asked, sitting up. Despite his words he smirked, "I haven't seen your hairdryer. And trust me, it's hard to miss"

Remembering Betsy, Kitty turned back to her and introduced the two mutants. "This is Amara by the way. She's a princess. And this is her good-for-nothing boyfriend, Bobby Drake"

"I am too good for something!" he exclaimed, indignantly. "Tell them Amara!" The princess ignored him and pretended to be focusing on the fighters.

"This is incredible!" Betsy breathed looking beneath her in amazement. Her awe seemed to bring Kitty back from fuming.

"Glad you like it!" she responded cheerily once again. "Oh, hey, let me point out the guys for you…"

Kitty started pointing at figures below them calling them by their full names and explaining about their powers with the help of Amara and Bobby who had given up on his electronic troubles. She pointed out that she was watching the Brotherhood taking on some X-Men, New Mutants (which was a group of younger mutants) and a few former Acolytes including the _Cajun_ fighting the girl with streaks in her hair who went only by 'Rouge'.

Betsy was about to ask about the name when Remy tossed a card that was seemingly on fire which sliced off a piece of Rouge's hair.

"Well, Remy's just saved you money getting a haircut, _chere,_" Remy said jokingly as Betsy watched Rouge look at her sliced hair in disbelief. At that moment, the mutant Kitty had pointed out as Piotr was thrown by a claw near Rouge's feet. She reached down and touched his arm with a bare hand and Betsy watched Remy's eyes grow wide as Rouge's smile did. Piotr gave a groan and was still.

"Now, now _chere,_" he said pleadingly, backing up as Rouge began advancing on him.

"Oh dear, looks like trouble, Logan," Amara told the older man who didn't respond. She peeked under the hat and she turned to Betsy and Kitty worriedly. "He's asleep"

"So wake him up," Betsy said, knowing it should have been obvious. There came a scared cry from below and Betsy saw all the pairs stop to stare at or laugh at a metal plated Rouge chasing a screaming Remy around the Danger Room.

"One of the few but _very_ important rules of the Mansion is 'you do not wake up a sleeping Logan,'" Bobby told her gravely while Amara pressed a button on a panel and shouted, "Run like the wind, Remy!"

**

* * *

**

After a few more minutes in the Danger Room in which Rouge managed to catch Remy and kick him in the balls (to the general moan of 'ohhh' from the present male population), Kitty had received a message on her watch saying Betsy needed to report to an office on the third floor. Kitty departed with Amara to take Remy to the mansion's hospital wing.

She sat herself down on one of the chairs facing the main desk in the room and contemplated: the Danger Room session was just as exciting as she expected it to be.

She heard a tingling sound and looked down towards the noise to find herself staring at a pair of deep green cat eyes who stared at her in curiosity.

"Well, hello there" Betsy greeted as she moved to pet the cat. The orange-red tabby pulled back however and smelled her fingers first. Betsy allowed it to and then tried to pet the cat again. Once again, it pulled away.

This time, however, it ran around the desk and leapt up to the chair and then up again onto the wooden desk as it came to peer at Betsy at eye level. Finally, it seemed to disapprove of the mutant woman and it turned its back at her with a criticizing meow.

At that moment, the boy with the red sunglasses Betsy had seen with Alex came into the office. He smiled at her, a charming smile.

"Hi, you must be Betsy" he said as he came into the room. At once, the cat jumped down from the desk and began rubbing itself against his legs. He picked up the cat with one arm and held it against his hip as he shook Betsy's hand.

"Yes, I'm Betsy Braddock. I'm interested in joining the X-Men"

"My name's Scott" he said as he sat down and began petting the cat. "I'm the X-Men's field leader"

Besty shot an amused smile at the cat who was now purring happily on Scott's lap. "Your cat didn't seem to like me too much" she informed him.

"My…?" Scott looked confused for a moment as if he had forgotten the cat on his lap. He looked down at it and then laughed. "Oh, right. Well, she wouldn't now, would she? She's actually my girlfriend"

Betsy was surprised by the news. She quirked an eyebrow. "You're girlfriend's a cat?"

"Actually, she's a mutant like you and me" he said as he turned a photograph that was on the desk around so Betsy could see. It was Scott and red haired woman with the same green eyes she'd seen on the cat posing for a picture with their tennis racquets.

"Is turning into a cat her mutation?" Betsy asked as she examined the picture.

"No, Jean's a telepath and a very powerful telekinetic. However, we had a run-in with this villain who had mystical powers and…well…" he paused awkwardly and looked down at his cat-girlfriend. Jean looked up at him with a glare and then laid her head down with resignation and meowed.

"Well," he continued with Jean's approval, "our newest recruit is another telepath named Emma Frost…" Jean hissed at this and Betsy stifled a giggle at this reaction.

"Play nice," he chided. "She and Jean got into a _**cat**_fight over how to proceed with the mission and the villain overheard them. They've both been like this for the past few weeks. Dr. McCoy is working on something to get them back to normal though. He should have it any day now"

"Dr. McCoy?" Betsy asked, not having met anyone yet by that name.

"He's our resident doctor" Scott exclaimed. "Lately, he's been tampering with some magical stuff down in the lab to see if he could fix our girls"

"That sounds interesting enough," Betsy admitted.

"I can give you a tour if you're into that type of thing," Scott offered to which Jean hissed in disapproval.

"Down, girl" he scolded playfully. Betsy laughed.

**

* * *

**

Betsy emerged from the downstairs labs with Scott in the absence of Dr. McCoy just as it seemed the younger mutants of the Institute decided they'd had enough with homework and decided to crawl out of their rooms. As Scott waved and headed in another direction with Jean in tow, Betsy decided to check out the rooms. Once at the top, she looked down the stairs to where Alex and Laura were heading out carrying on a conversation. Just then, a blonde short-haired girl came running down the hallway and perched just at the top of the stairs near Betsy.

"Hey, Sharkbait and Badgerette!" she called down at the couple, "While you're out, can you grab me some mouthwash? I don't like the flavor of Roberto's!"

"YOU'VE BEEN USING MY MOUTHWASH?!?!" came a shriek from one of the rooms to Betsy's left,_** "THE GERMS!!!"**_

"Oh, suck it up!" a Scottish voice barked from another part of the house.

"It's _HAVOC_ and _X23,_ Tabitha!" Alex snapped at her while Laura glared.

"Sure! Whatever! Bring mouthwash!" she said casually as she watched them turn back around to leave. As Alex passed by Kurt and Kitty passing by on the way out, they both mock bowed.

"Sharkbait! Hoo-ha-ha!" they proclaimed at the same time. Kurt teleported them both hollering with laugher before X23 could take a swipe at them.

"What is with everybody and that damn joke! I don't even get it!" Alex muttered as he stomped his foot on the way out.

The blonde stood at the top of the stairs doubled over with laughter at Alex's naivety while Betsy couldn't help but crack a smile. She began to turn into the hallway but was stopped by Tabitha's hand on her arm.

"Hey, you're the possible new recruit, right?"

"Yeah" Betsy responded as she introduced herself yet again, "I'm Betsy Braddock"

"Tabitha "Boom Boom" Smith. What's _your_ codename?" Tabby asked. When Betsy looked confused, she elaborated. "Didn't you hear we get codenames? Like, I create little bombs so I'm 'Boom Boom'. Bobby makes ice so he's 'Iceman'. Stuff like that"

"Do I have to?" Betsy asked. "I don't have many ideas for the powers I have"

"Every mutant here has a codename for when we fight bad guys. Well, everyone except Jean and Emma" she explained. "Jean couldn't think of one so the Professor let her off on the codename thing. I suggested something like 'Girl of Wonder' or 'Fantastigirl' but she said she liked just Jean. I thought they were great suggestions" Tabby huffed, crossing her arms and leaning against a wall.

"What about Emma?" Betsy asked although she got a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Oh, Jean and Emma are like, the biggest rivals of like, life!" came Kitty's voice as she phased through Tabby's wall to join the conversation. "She convinced the Professor that if Jean didn't need to have a codename, like, neither did she. I go by 'Shadowcat' by the way" she added proudly.

"What's their rivalry about?" Betsy asked again, feeling slightly bad she was enjoying the gossip so much. "Scott said they were both telepaths"

Tabby and Kitty looked at each other and then back at Betsy. "You just said it. They're both like, totally smitten with Scott"

"But don't try to tell him about it" Tabby said quickly. "He's one of those people that sees good in everybody and can't bring himself to _believe_ that two women have dedicated their lives to fighting over him" She let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes.

"I'll remember that" Betsy said wryly.

"So?" Tabitha prodded, "What's your codename going to be?"

"Yeah!" Kitty chimed. "Like, what are your powers?"

"Well, I'm telepathic and slightly telekinetic"

"Define 'slightly'"

"I can't move things with my mind but I can produce enough mental energy to form things like knives and shields and armor"

"Oh!" Tabby interjected, "How about, 'Psychic Samuri'?"

"Or like, 'Tele-Ninja'?" Kitty added.

Betsy laughed at the suggestions but smiled in appreciation. "I'll think about it"

**

* * *

**

After Tabitha and Kitty gave her a tour of the rooms, Betsy headed back down to the Danger Room to see if anyone else was practicing. Instead, she found an enormous contraption being built by an older looking boy so she exited the hub and found her way to the doors of the Danger Room itself. She arrived just as the boy was coming out from under the machine to grab something.

"Hi, there!" he said when he saw her. Betsy's eyes widened in wonder at the boy's arm which was made of metal and had several tools sticking out of it and moving around as he attempted to grab something from the toolbox.

He looked at her again and did a double take. "You new here?"

"Well, I'm thinking of moving in here!" Betsy called as the boy found his piece and dove under the ray gun machine again. "My name's Betsy"

The boy came back out from under the machine and got up to shake her hand. The metal on his arm seemed to fold into itself until he had a regular human hand on him. "I go by Forge. Resident genius and sole single male of the Xavier Institute"

"Oh please," came another voice from under the huge ray gun, "where did you get that pick up line? The Internet?"

"No one asked you anything, Sage!" he barked at the machine as he cheeks colored somewhat. Betsy rolled her eyes just as the gothic looking teenager with a tattoo on her face emerged from under the ray gun and did the same.

"_I_ go by Sage. _Second_ resident genius of the Xavier Institute," she paused to teasingly kick Forge's shin, "and currently _pursuing_ this bozo here". With that, she ducked back down and continued with the machine. Forge muttered something and turned around to a separate device.

"If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing?" Betsy asked as she peered over the boy's shoulder at the bizarre contraption he was working with.

"I dreamt up this machine last night. It should allow us to bring people back from the dead using only the power in this hairdryer" he said triumphantly as he held up the hot pink hair dryer.

"Um, isn't that Kitty's?" Betsy asked cautiously.

"No" he lied.

"Yeah, because the 'KP' etched onto the side of it is for Kim Possible" Sage replied sarcastically from under the ray. Betsy laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. What I need to invent is a machine to shut you up!"

"Yeah!" Sage shouted back. "It's called a kiss, dumbass!"

**

* * *

**

"My God! What is your malfunction! Just move off my damn paper!" someone shouted as Betsy came back into the kitchen to grab a snack after watching some power practice outside with the New Mutants. She recognized Scott with Jean sitting in a corner along with several of the New Mutants she'd seen practicing as well as a couple members of the 'Brotherhood' that had been practicing earlier that day and the girl named Rogue.

A dark haired boy with a mullet was glaring at a longhaired white cat which Betsy recalled to be named Emma who was sitting on top of the sports section of the newspaper looking quite smug. The mullet boy made an attempt to push the cat but its white fur seemed to turn into diamond. It made her look like a porcupine with lazy needles. Kitty came up behind this boy and gave him a hug from behind.

"If you let her see that it annoys you, Lance, she'll like, never get off"

"But I want my damned paper!" he grumbled as Emma kept looking at him like she was having the time of her life. Betsy rolled her eyes and headed for the refrigerator to grab something to eat. A white haired woman doing the dishes a few feet away smiled at her.

"Why hello. You must be Betsy. The Professor told us you would be wandering around the grounds today"

"Yeah" Betsy confirmed pulling out a cup of yogurt. "That's me"

The woman pulled out a spoon from the soapy mess in the sink and held up her other hand to it. A breeze seemed to whisp by her and the spoon was instantly dry. She handed it to Betsy.

"Gee, thank you Ms.—"

"Munroe. But please, call me Ororo" she said.

"_I'VE GOT IT!_" came a cry from someone outside the kitchen. The person in question came rushing into the room and to Betsy's surprise, was a large, blue, ape-like man in a lab coat. She was about to ask Ororo about that when she noticed 'McCoy' sewn onto his lab coat and kept her mouth shut for the man's news.

"Got what, Hank?" Ororo asked as everyone's attention, including Jean in Scott's arms and Emma on top of Lance's newspaper, turned to the blue-haired doctor who was shuffling through his lab coat.

"A cure for Jean and Emma!" he proclaimed as he pulled out two long needled syringes.

Apparently, it had slipped the good doctor's mind that both Jean and Emma suffered from severe needle phobia because the second both cats laid eyes on the syringes, their pupils dilated and they tried to make a break for it.

Emma shot off the newspaper and threw her body weight against the swinging kitchen door so that it opened enough for her to scramble through. Jean tried to leap out of Scott's arms but his Danger Room reflexes were too fast and he managed to grab onto her. She turned around in his arms and made an attempt over his shoulder. Scott yowled as Jean dug her front set of nails into his back and her hind set into his chest but he managed to hold her firm enough so that Hank could inject one of her back legs.

For a moment, nothing happened and Betsy feared it hadn't worked. All that could be heard was some muttering from the students and Jean's fearful meowing. At last, the meowing began turning into words.

"—and I really don't think a needle is necessary cuz, you know, I mean, I can take it by mouth right? It would completely have the same effect just please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh _please_ don't let them put a needle in me, Scott—"

As Jean continued panicking, unaware that she had already been injected and people could actually understand her, her feline body proceeded to grow and change surrounded in a warm blue light until at last it faded and Betsy saw the woman in Scott's photo. Jean, on the other hand, still clinging to Scott with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist, dressed in full X-Men uniform, and _still_ babbling about her fear of needles, didn't notice a thing.

"Jean! Jean, it's ok! Open your eyes" Scott prodded gently.

Jean peeked an eye open. Her face heated up as she dropped to the floor. Scott winced as he rubbed his chest where his girlfriend had clawed him while some of the students and all of the Brotherhood were trying to retain their laughter. And failing.

"Well," Jean said as casually as she could muster, "that wasn't so bad"

"Sez you" Scott muttered, still rubbing his chest and his back over his shoulder.

"Well, glad to see that it worked" Hank said cheerfully as if he'd just put a band-aid on a paper cut. "Now, to see to Emma. She darted out of here so fast, you'd think she was just as afraid of needles as you are, Jean" he added with a wink at Jean.

Jean's face brightened so quickly, it scared Betsy.

"Oh, that's alright Hank. I'm sure you've got plenty of _other_ things to do than search around the mansion for a silly cat. I'll do it for you"

"Why thank you, Jean" he said knowingly as he handed her the syringe. "You're right, in fact. I still have to go test those chemicals to see if that new moisturizer is as dangerous to mutants as that sports drink. Maybe if I examine the mutated protozoa I discovered yesterday by the reef…"

As Hank left the kitchen through one door muttering to himself about his projects, Jean left through the other door which Emma had disappeared through practically skipping.

"Emma! Oh, Emma daaaaahhhhling!"

**

* * *

**

"Alright! It's all ready to fire up for its test run!"

"Who vill ve be resurrecting?" Kurt asked as he eyed Kitty's hair dryer with amusement.

"This is just a test run" he said fiddling with something in a Ziploc bag. "We'll just be testing it on this dead roach before we move up to mammals"

He held up the dead bug to Kurt which produced a shriek from Kitty who was standing nearby. She phased through Lance and clung onto him from behind which Betsy thought he looked a little too happy about.

"You're supposed to keep those things, like, dead! Not bring them back!" Kitty shouted from behind her boyfriend. Betsy was standing near the back of the X-crowd but still felt the need to recoil. It was a really big roach.

"That's what I told him!" Sage chimed from where she was fiddling with some knobs. "'Why not bring back something people actually _want_ back on the earth?' I said but Dr. Frankenstein here wanted his damn roach"

"Cockroaches are actually very good specimens since they usually can survive massive amounts of radiation" Hank interjected eying the bug.

"Thank you!" Forge exclaimed, blowing Sage a raspberry. She merely rolled her eyes.

"Come over here you moron. I need to double check your thrust machine"

"I thought she did that last night" Betsy heard Bobby whisper somewhere behind her. This was followed by giggles.

"OK! Everyone stand back!" Sage called. All the X-Men (sans Jean who was still hunting for Emma) took a few steps back as Forge placed the roach on a platform and Sage fired up the machine and it began to rumble loudly. Forge plugged the hair dryer into the rest of the machine and pointed it like a gun at the platform. He pressed the 'High' button and a deafening _WHOOM_ noise followed. Betsy shut her eyes and clamped her hands over her ears.

There was silence and Betsy peeked an eye open as the rest of the X-Men did the same. The machine was now shut down and the roach still appeared to be dead. Everyone turned to Forge. Sage looked ready to advance on him and strangle him.

"Wait for it…" he told them. Suddenly, there was a faint pop and the roach flipped itself over, and looked around.

"_**IT'S ALIVE!**_" Forge cried out triumphantly. He spun around a few times, doing a happy dance and therefore didn't notice when the roach began to get bigger.

"Um, Forge?" Sage asked in a panicked voice as the roach reached the size of a football and continued to grow swiftly, "Baby, is that supposed to happen?"

By the time Forge finished his victory dance and turned back to the roach, it was the size of a car. Kitty had stood motionless and paralyzed in fear along with the terrified X-Men up till this point. Suddenly and without reason, she gave a high pitch scream and ran full speed at the closest wall not slowing down as she phased through it.

The sound seemed to have provoked the roach who let out an ear-splitting screech and brought a foot crashing down on the spot where Nightcrawler had teleported from milliseconds before. The X-Men scattered and Scott began shouting battle instructions.

Unsure of what to do but ready to defend herself, Betsy whipped out two psychic knives as the roach reached the size of a house. Nearby, Tabby whistled her awe at her powers before tossing several gumball sized balls at the roach which exploded while it was struck by lightning and shot with an optic blast.

Following Tabitha's lead seeing that Scott was too preoccupied to include her in his battle instructions, she threw both knives at the roach's head. Being telekinetic, they went right through his head but not before the roach gave another screech and stumbled, weakened. Betsy noticed that it had also stopped growing.

She turned to grin at Tabitha and found the X-Men closest to her staring at her in amazement.

"Everybody, distract it so Betsy can get a clear opening!" Scott called and the X-Men sprang back into action.

It only took six more knives to render the roach unconscious and its legs gave out from underneath it, crashing down on part of Forge's machine.

"Hey! My lazer!" Forge exclaimed, emerging from underneath the part of the machine that wasn't destroyed to gape at the rest of it. Betsy concluded that he had no other power than the mechanical arm or he would have been fighting.

He turned indignantly to Sage only to find all of the X-Men, their clothes dirty and ripped, glaring at him. Sage in particular looked livid.

Catching the drift what was on their minds, he began to back into the wall. "C'mon guys, it wasn't _**that**_ bad, right? I mean, we won, right? …Right?"

**

* * *

**

Some time later, when the roach had been disposed and all the X-Men got a chance to smack Forge upside the head (and Sage gave him a good black eye), the Professor sent Betsy a telepathic message to meet him in his office.

Betsy walked back into the Professor's office to see all the X-Men and Brotherhood she had met standing around the office with the Professor behind his desk. The only unfamiliar face in the room was a tall curvy blonde standing near Forge and rubbing her behind. Betsy figured it had to be Emma judging by the way she kept sending death glares to the other side of the room where Jean stood under Scott's arm looking extremely pleased with herself.

"Hello Betsy," Professor Xavier said kindly. "We were just discussing you"

Betsy had already figured as much but nodded nonetheless.

"Now, I've spoken with Scott and we both agree that your performance with Forge's roach—"

The Professor paused to send Forge a look that made him wince and clutch the frozen meat to his black eye more tightly.

"—was enough of an examination for us to prove your abilities as an X-Man. Therefore, we would like to formally invite you to join us here at the Institute.

"Now, I understand that this may be a little bit soon for you," the Professor said reassuringly, taking Betsy's look to mean she'd been startled by the news, "and we would understand if you wouldn't want to join us here just—"

"_Are you kidding me?!"_ she exclaimed suddenly and with such energy that half the gathered mutants jumped. A huge grin spread across her face. "This is the most adventure I've had in years! Sign me up, baby!"

Professor X simply smiled as the X-Men, New Mutants, Brotherhood, and former Acolytes all looked at each other confused. Emma shrugged her shoulders.

"Adventure? It's just Thursday"

* * *

The Sharkbait joke is from the fanfic "Things not the do at Xavier's" and the X-Men are not mine. The humor totally is :) 


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